"One aspect that stands out in the documents seen by O Globo is
that, according to them, the United States doesn’t appear interested in military
affairs alone, but also in trade secrets - 'oil' in Venezuela, and 'energy' in
Mexico, according to a list produced by the NSA in
the first quarter of this year. ... the NSA collected
data on petroleum and military acquisitions in Venezuela, and energy and
narcotics in Mexico."

RIO:
The United States has espionage and monitoring programs in several Latin
American countries beyond Brazil. Classified documents from the National
Security Agency (NSA), to which O Globo had access, show similar
situations occurring in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador,
among others.

One
aspect that stands out in the documents is that, according to them, the United
States doesn’t appear interested in military affairs alone, but also in trade
secrets - “oil” in Venezuela, and “energy” in Mexico, according to a list
produced by the NSA in the first quarter of this year.

Over
the past five years in terms of NSA espionage
activity, Colombia was the second priority target in Latin America, right after
Brazil and Mexico. The NSA documents show the
collection of information in Colombia to be significant and constant, although
not always at this same tempo, between 2008 and the first quarter of this year
- up until this past March.

There
is no evidence that espionage via satellite, telephone and electronic mail,
with teams from the NSA and CIA, has continued over the
past three months.

From
last January to March, according to the documents, NSA
agents conducted espionage in Latin America under the rubric of at least two
programs: PRISM
(in the period between February 2-8) and Boundless Informant
(from January to March).

PRISM
makes it possible to access e-mails, online chats and voice calls of the
clients of companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft,
and YouTube. Through it, the NSA collected data on petroleum
and military acquisitions in Venezuela, energy and narcotics in Mexico, and
mapped the movements of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). One in April 2007 NSA graphic
clearly shows the amount of data that the agency could capture transmitted over
underwater fiber optic cables. This flow of information would serve to fuel the
processing of data under PRISM.

This
program, however, doesn't allow access to the entire universe of
communications. Under PRISM, large volumes of telephone call and internet data
traffic were outside the reach of the NSA and its partners.

To
extend their reach, the agency developed other programs with corporate partners,
capable of providing access to international communications. That is the case
with Boundless Informant, which catalogues phone calls and Internet access.

An
undated document that accompanies maps from 2012, describes the attributes of
the operation Silverzephyr (the code name is in
reference to a train line that existed in the United States during the 1940s).
According to an internal NSA PowerPoint presentation,
Silverzephyr was aimed at “accessing lines for
information transmission through a partner.” The agency has a policy of
creating partnerships with private companies that operate satellites, telephone
systems and networks which transmit data. The targets, as the image shows, were
countries in Latin America. From the documentation, it is possible to conclude
that in this region, the agency collected information from telephone calls,
faxes and e-mails that were tracked, possibly by the Fairview
program.

The
importance of operations in Colombia is also highlighted by the agency’s maps.
In part, this can be explained by the intense cooperation between the
governments in Washington and Bogotá, in regard to the offensive against FARC guerrillas and their financial alliance with the drug
cartels. But beyond the purely military aspects, there are also economic ones -
such as petroleum.

Colombia
maintains a military alliance with the United States that is unparalleled among
South American countries. That makes it a privileged area of operation for U.S.
agencies like the NSA when it comes to the routine
collection of information to the north, west of and south of the country.

The
documents obtained by O Globo contain no specific numbers, but the color scale used
to elaborate on the agency’s maps allows one to conclude that in the months of
March, this year and last, Colombia was considered a target for espionage just as
relevant as Brazil and Mexico.

In
2008, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela were also monitored by something called the
X-Keyscore program, which was able to track and
identify foreigners in a country based on the language he or she used in
e-mails.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

In
that year, coincidence or not, Colombia faced a serious crisis with Ecuador and
Venezuela. Colombian forces
attacked a narco-guerilla faction inside Ecuadorian
territory, and that country responded: they closed the border and cut off relations
with Colombia, creating a serious diplomatic crisis.

In
March of last year, according to the NSA documents, Colombia
and Venezuela again figured prominently among the targets of espionage. The
agency used software known as Fairview.
The volume of data collected, according to NSA maps
on that period, was apparently less than what was taken from Brazil during the
same period.

In
March this year, Colombia became as much a priority for the NSA
as Brazil. That is when Hugo Chávez died. It was the end of the cycle of Chavismo. That also began another political game in South
America.

Worldmeets.US is a non-partisan, volunteer-based, not-for-profit organization that operates solely in the public interest. The opinions expressed in articles posted by Worldmeets.US are not necessarily those of Worldmeets.US, its sponsors, or its volunteers.